Fly Away, Far Away, Erised
by The Angel of London
Summary: The feeling of free falling, the adrenaline, the possible danger. It could rival Quidditch. How she wanted wings; she could fly off. Fly far away, far, far away to a place where they don't know her, to a place they won't pity her nor give her fake sympathy. How she wanted wings; to escape everyone and everything, to live alone and unknown for a while. - MOE Comp [EvangelineKL] #27


**Fly Away, Far Away, Erised**

Mirror of Erised Competition – Cho Chang

**Words: 2070**

**Prompts: snow, green, wings**

**Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine – nor is the whole Harry Potter thing... **

It was midnight up in Scotland. The moonlight lighted up the Ravenclaw common room as it shone through the tall windows. Sitting in an armchair next to the tallest window, through which the most light came through, Cho Chang still cried.

It was all she did these days, ever since- ever since Cedric died. It'd been more than half a year yet she still felt sad when she remembered him. She knew other girls whispered – she knew what they said; '_Poor Cho, lost Harry and Cedric'_, '_Pity she cries all the time, she could be pretty'_...

Truth was, they were right. She had lost Cedric – to death – and she had lost Harry – to Hermione. Whether he knew it or not – he was in love with her, it was obvious, and vice versa. After that kiss they shared not days ago, after which he'd run, they hadn't seen each other. Of course, the fact that they were at the Burrow together didn't really help the rumours.

But she didn't care. At one point she might've liked Harry, but she felt it was more her imagination than anything else. She'd been feeling so lonely; she just went and kissed him. What a joke.

Sighing, she decided a midnight stroll would do her some good, as much as she secretly doubted it. Casting a disillusionment charm on herself, she exited the common room, the portrait quiet.

She wandered around the castle with no exact purpose – just for the hell of it. Once or twice she came close to bumping into someone patrolling because she wasn't paying attention, but in general, it was uneventful. At one, she realised it was getting late, but she didn't care. She didn't want to go to the Ravenclaw tower where, in the morning, they'll all look at her in pity.

_She lost her boyfriend, dead. Too bad. _That's what they all thought when they saw her. _Pity. Dead. Too bad. Pity, pity, pity. Dead, dead. Too bad... _In a hidden corner, she fell asleep, those damn words repeating themselves in her mind over, and over, and over again, a trigger to a nightmare.

Suddenly, something heavy fell on her. Something breathing, something moving, something alive. She looked out at the sky and saw it was early morning, so she thought it safe to disillusion herself.

"YOU!" the person exclaimed at seeing her, he had a strong Irish accent . Then she realised who it was; Seamus Finnegan.

"Oh, you," she said emotionlessly, "if you'll excuse me."

Seamus wrapped his arm around her waist, and with his other hand, he grabbed her wrist.

"Hey, hey! Is this how you thank your saviour? I'm hurt, Chang, I really am," he widened his eyes innocently, "you don't want a detention do you?"

Suddenly, feeling mischievous, she smirked to herself and turned to face Seamus, her face closer than normal. "Oh, sorry," then she leaned a bit, "thank you," and she kissed him on the cheek, surprising him and herself. Luckily, she pulled herself together quickly and ran off, his arms having had let go of her.

Why did she do that? For once, her long lost mischievous side came out, but why? Why now, with Seamus Finnegan of all people? Shaking her head, she resolved to forget about it – it never happened, she thought. But it did.

She found herself in the Great Hall. She really didn't want to sit with the Ravenclaws – she'd spent the last days eating in the kitchens – but she couldn't turn and leave. She scanned the tables and saw Seamus waving her over. Deciding it'd be better than the Slytherins, she sat next to him.

"Hey, Chang," he chirped happily, their moment before seemingly forgetting.

"How'd you get here so quickly?" Cho asked as she placed a couple of pieces of toast and some eggs on her plate, "I swear..."

"Ah, ah! Secret," he winked, and then he continued eating his food.

Cho took a drink of her pumpkin juice, "so what have you got now?"

"Erm..." he thought, "potions..." He made a face of disgust.

"Great, I'd rather Snape than Umbridge any day."

"Yeah, but Snape doesn't especially hate Ravenclaw, neither does Umbridge," Seamus coughed, and Cho could hear the words 'Harry Potter'. She smirked.

"Oh well, too bad. I have History of Magic," she stopped eating and looked at the head table, "why doesn't Binns ever exit the classroom?"

"It's Binns, Chang, he don't need any reasons. I don't mind, I'd rather not fall asleep at breakfast, lunch _and _dinner as well as in History – as nice as it sounds, I like eating, thank you very much," Seamus pointed out as he started eating his bacon.

After a few minutes of silence, Seamus spoke up; "Chang, what about a snowball fight – Ravenclaw against Gryffindor tomorrow at 12?"

"My dear Finnegan-"

"Did you just say-"

"Snowball fight-"

"Tomorrow at noon-"

"Ravenclaws and Gryffindors?"

When Seamus nodded, Fred jumped onto an empty space and shouted for the Great Hall to hear;

"ALRIGHT! Tomorrow, noon, snowball fight! May the best house win!"

Immediately, all the students started talking excitedly and Fred jumped off the bench and high-fived George; "Well, my dearies, our job here is done-"

"Now, goodbye, as we search for our comra-"George stopped and saw Lee Jordan leaving the hall, "oi! Lee!"

As quickly as they'd arrived, they'd gone, leaving a confused Cho and amused Seamus.

"Ignore it, you get used to it after a while," he stood up, his plate empty, "may I escort you to your next class?"

Cho was about to agree, but then she thought about her boyfriend, Cedric. Once she remembered he was dead and no longer her boyfriend, she ran off, hiding tears. She could hear them talking, whispering, as she ran out, not hiding her tears anymore – she couldn't. The whispers, the rumours, the sympathy. _Always crying, pity. Poor girl. Too bad._

She ran and ran until she found herself in a dusty part of the castle. Not wanting to face anyone just yet, she went on and entered a dark room, closing and locking the door behind her. In the room, there was something covered with a white sheet, she ignored it and leant her back against the door.

She slid down until she sat with her knees brought up to her chest and her arms around them. She started crying – again – as the words repeated themselves in her mind. _Poor girl. Her boyfriend dead. No friends. Crying all the time. Pity. Pity. Pity. Too bad for her. Too bad. Much too bad. _

After a while, she stopped crying. Her thoughts suddenly went to Seamus; someone who, before that morning, she had never spoken to – excluding the occasional paired project in a shared class. She thought of how he treated her as a normal human, not one that should be pitied and whispered about. But her happy thoughts were burst by the voices. _Pity he's dead. Too bad she's crying. All the time; in the bathrooms, in her room... Pity – It's too bad – What a pity. _

She looked up and saw a mirror, the white sheet disappeared. She stood up, going to look how bad she looked. If she could, she'd make it look less like she'd cried. The frame of the mirror was dark silver, with an inscription on the top; Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi. _Erised, _it sounded familiar. She looked in the mirror and saw herself.

_**She was smiling happily, like never before. She had an arm wrapped around her waist and she noticed her head was leaning on the boy's shoulder. She looked up at him with a look of pure love and happiness – it seemed she lived him more than she'd love Cedric. She saw her reflection had an engagement ring.**_

_**It changed: His hand was on her stomach and they looked at it in joy – she was pregnant. They looked older, she noticed, maybe three or four years. They had already gone out of Hogwarts – obviously. Cho caught sight of two wedding rings on their fingers.**_

_**It changed again and they were older, yet still in love. His hand on her stomach once again, but his other was holding a little girl's hand. That little girl had a twin who was hugging the man – her father and Cho's husband. **_

Finally, she looked at his face and, shocked, she ran out of the room. She couldn't believe it.

She wandered the hallways, avoiding any classrooms – she was missing class but she couldn't bring herself to care. Cho was simply tired, emotionally exhausted, and she didn't know where she was going, until she found herself in the bathroom on the third floor.

The door opened and a couple of girls in the year under her entered, giggling. Cho hid in a cubicle and, without meaning to, was eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Are you serious?" one of them squealed excitedly.

"Yes! I can't believe it, he asked me out on a date, at last!"

"I know," the first trailed off, "Seamus is pretty good-looking."

"Of course, not to mention his accent..."

While they gushed and – Cho thought – applied a load of make-up, Cho sat on the cubicle and cried silently. She didn't even notice when the girls left, she was crying and crying. She didn't even know _why_ she was, but she felt devastated.

The next day she found herself looking out the window of her dormitory as she saw most of the school having a great snowball fight. In the last two days it had snowed immensely, so there was snow to spare. She could swear she caught Dumbledore throw a couple of snow balls at a few students.

After a couple of hours of them playing, they showed no sign of tiring, and she'd gotten bored of watching the repetitive fight. Just after she'd left, she missed the teachers entering the fight when McGonagall was accidentally hit by Harry himself.

Once again, for the hundredth time that week, she started randomly wandering the castle, although this time, she found herself in the astronomy tower. She started thinking about jumping – not to die – but to feel how it'd feel.

The feeling of free falling, the adrenaline, the possible danger. It could rival Quidditch. How she wanted wings; she could fly off. Fly far away, far, far away to a place where they don't know her, to a place they won't pity her nor give her fake sympathy. How she wanted wings; to escape everyone and everything, to live alone and unknown for a while.

Shaking her head, she remembered the mirror she'd seen the day before. _The Mirror of Erised. _She recognised the name, but she couldn't recall from where. She looked out into the sky and saw the clouds were grey and the wind stronger than before.

An especially strong gust of wind blew a piece of paper to her face and she caught it before it flew off. Once she saw the first words, she frowned but read it;

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi: I show not your face but you heart's desire. _

And with that line, she knew understood the reflection. She understood it completely.

Hours later, Seamus Finnegan entered the Astronomy tower to see Cho Chang looking out onto the horizon. Secretly, he'd always liked her – but it'd been horrible to know she was single because Cedric was dead.

"Seamus," she started, "if I told you I liked you, what would you say?"

Thinking it was a joke, he simply said; "Sorry, wait in line."

Cho felt sick, like literally sick, once she thought of Seamus' could-be girlfriends. She couldn't believe she felt jealous, but it made sense, in a way. Making sense or not, it still made her sick.

"Hey, Cho? You look kind of green..."

"Of course I do!" she snapped with unknown hostility, which made Seamus step back, "I feel sick. I- I feel... Jealous! For Merlin's sake!" she shouted with out of character anger, she never was angry. She was more of a nice person.

Cho was about to start ranting and shouting again, hoping to just vent off some anger, when Seamus kissed her. It was sudden, but she kissed him back, all anger and jealousy forgotten. When they separated and her black eyes met his hazel ones, she knew the mirror was right.

END

**What do you think? I think a couple of parts were somewhat rushed but... The title was something random I just came up with.**


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